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Please post to other relevant lists (NOT history-gis):
MAPPING EUROPE'S HISTORIC BOUNDARIES & BORDERS
The European Science Foundation has awarded FF 100,000
(about Pnds 9600 or $US 15400) to support an "exploratory
workshop in the humanities" on historic boundary mapping.
The workshop will be held at the European University
Institute in Florence on June 1st-3rd 2000.
One purpose of this mailing is to seek additional
participants for the Florence workshop; the ESF funding
covers accommodation and travel costs. The workshop will be
a small gathering of quite specialised researchers involved
in CREATING records of historic boundaries, possibly in the
form of a Geographical Information System (GIS) but equally
through more traditional mapping. Many of the places at
the workshop are already taken, but we are keen to increase
the number of countries involved and are particularly
seeking participants from Austria, France, Poland, Portugal,
Spain and other ESF members not currently represented. For
more details see below.
However, we want to also reach out to potential USERS of
historic boundary mapping in a wide range of historical
fields, and we are therefore also announcing:
===> A round-table discussion within the European Social
Science History conference in Amsterdam next April.
This will be at 14:15-16:15 on April 13th; to
register for the ESSH, see:
http://www.iisg.nl/ESSHC
At least seven participants in the Florence meeting will
contribute to the Amsterdam session, but we hope that
demographic historians, political historians and others who
have either USED historic boundary mapping or wish it was
available for their period/country will also be
able to attend.
===> Another workshop session within the International
Congress of Historical Sciences in Oslo next August.
This will be on Friday 11 August or Saturday 12
August, and will be used to present the conclusions of
the Florence meeting to a wider audience. These
conclusions will concern, in part, how to link
together existing historic boundary mapping for
different countries and how to extend the resulting
European mapping to additional countries. Any such
project would take many years and cost large sums of
money, so we would need to build support among a
wide range of historians. For more details of the Oslo
congress, see:
http://www.hf.uio.no/oslo2000
===> We have established a new mailing list linked to the
workshop:
[log in to unmask]
Most preparation for the meeting will be based on
this list. Membership is limited to participants in
the Florence meeting and others involved in the field;
if you are interested in joining, please contact
Humphrey Southall (NB for more general discussion
of historical applications of GIS technology, see
[log in to unmask]). However, a public
archive of our discussions will be available at:
http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/hist-bound
In the longer term, a new web site will be established,
probably at the University of Portsmouth (where Humphrey
Southall is moving in January), containing systematic
information on all existing historic boundary mapping
projects.
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FLORENCE WORKSHOP, 1st TO 3rd JUNE 2000
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A wide range of information about the past relates to
administrative areas, from nation states down to those
covering individual villages, which either no longer exist
or have had their boundaries greatly changed.
Without detailed information on those boundaries, the
information is difficult to interpret; and without any
locational information it is impossible. In the past, such
information about locations and boundaries would have
been recorded in paper form as a map, but increasingly it
is stored on computer in the form of a Geographical
Information System.
Most European countries have a computerised record of
modern boundaries, and sometimes these are used in
historical research. However, systematic records of past
boundaries are less common, especially in computerised
form. Such computer systems exist for Norway, Sweden,
Belgium and the Netherlands, and a very large system is
under construction for Great Britain. These countries
benefit from being relatively small, while Scandinavia and
the British Isles have external borders which largely
follow coastlines, and which have consequently been stable
over many centuries. Elsewhere in Europe, national borders
have changed greatly even within the present century, and
in consequence strictly national projects to record
historic boundaries have major problems in both defining
what geographical area they are concerned with and locating
relevant record, which may be in other countries.
Next June's workshop follows on from a succesful workshop
more generally concerned with historical GIS in 1994, again
in Florence. The objective is to share experience of large
scale boundary mapping projects, rather than historical GIS
as a whole, and to explore the potential for
future collaboration through both technical assistance to
national projects and larger transnational projects.
The meeting will be limited to one or two participants from
each country. In general, participants should come from the
22 countries which are members of the European Science
Foundation (for further details of the ESF, see
http://www.esf.org). We already have participants from the
following ESF member states:
Belgium Czech Republic Denmark
Finland Germany Hungary
Ireland* Italy Netherlands Norway
Sweden Turkey United Kingdom
(*=based in Belfast, but an Ireland-wide project). We are
therefore particularly seeking participants from the
following countries:
Austria France Greece
Iceland Poland Portugal
Slovenia Spain Switzerland
WE WOULD BE PLEASED TO HEAR FROM COMPUTERISED HISTORIC
BOUNDARY MAPPING PROJECTS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, INCLUDING
COUNTRIES ALREADY REPRESENTED. HOWEVER, WE BELIEVE WE ARE
ALREADY IN CONTACT WITH MOST SUCH PROJECTS (Existing
participants include a representative of the US County Atlas
Project in Chicago, and we hope to also include a
representative of the Canadian Families Project).
FOR THE NINE COUNTRIES LISTED ABOVE, WE WOULD ALSO BE
INTERESTED TO HEAR FROM RESEARCHERS WORKING ON THE HISTORY
OF BOUNDARIES, WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE USING COMPUTERS, OR
FROM RESEARCHERS INTERESTED IN STARTING SUCH A PROJECT.
>From past experience, such researchers are most likely to be
historical demographers but other projects that are
interested in using boundary mapping include a project on
saints' cults and historians of the book trade.
ANYONE CONTACTING US SHOULD BE CLEAR THAT THE FLORENCE
WORKSHOP IS _NOT_ AN OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT CONVENTIONAL
RESEARCH PAPERS IN PLEASANT SURROUNDINGS AT THE ESF'S
EXPENSE: You will be asked to gather systematic
information on your country's sources for historic boundary
mapping (old maps, lists of boundary changes) and on major
sources to be mapped (historic censuses, vital statistics,
taxation records; in particular, what geographical units
do these relate to?).
Co-Ordination Group:
===================
Michael Guerke (European University Institute, Florence)
Humphrey Southall (Queen Mary College, University of London;
from January 1st, University of Portsmouth)
Gunnar Thorvaldsen (Norwegian Historical Data Centre,
Tromso)
(Please reply to Humphrey Southall: [log in to unmask];
this e-mail address will continue to work after Janaury).
========================================================
Dr. Humphrey Southall,
Reader in Geography,
Department of Geography,
Queen Mary and Westfield College,
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON,
Mile End Road,
London E1 4NS, ENGLAND
Direct Line: 0171-975-5413
Dept. Fax: 0181-981-6276
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